Preface

Welcome TONI! Having moved from our old and rather cosy premises, the Master programme has now settled into the creative city of the Toni Campus. The fact that we are closer to the work­shops, the library and our colleagues in staff, research, and from the Bachelor courses, has made daily life easier and given strong impetus to the Master programme. Despite the efforts it took to move, the past academic year has nonetheless been a successful one.

Some of our Master’s students participated in the International Design Summer School in Shanghai. In September 2014, we launched the Master atelier in the new Campus with the 2nd semester students. In February 2015, 43 new students started their MA course, pursuing different Master specialisations. One of the highlights of the year was the International Design Workshop, held simultaneously at the ZHdK Connecting Space in Hong Kong and at the Master atelier in Zurich, and exploring and designing the topic “IntenCity” from the perspectives of both cities. With regard to developing stronger relations with design research, we were able to integrate the project “Science Tool-Science Toy” into the curricula for the next two years. In addition, we produced the multi­media interactive installation “Fragments of Switzerland” at Swissnex in Rio de Janeiro, opening up an exciting new visual dialogue between Switzerland and Brazil.

And now, we are pleased to exhibit 25 Master Design projects, remarkable for their high level of design knowledge and excellent results. Taking the previous Master degree classes as our reference, we look forward, with great anticipation, to the launch of successful individual careers, combined with research grants, design awards and challenging professional lives.

We wish the 2015 graduates all the best for the up­coming future.

Professor Michael Krohn
Head of Master of Arts in Design

Specialisations

The Master of Arts in Design at the Zurich University of the Arts offers designers and individuals from related disciplines an out­standing opportunity to further develop their individual expertise and attain cutting-edge excel­lence. The programme, which runs for one year and a half, requires students to be self-driven, innovative, and to have a genuine interest in inter­discipli­nary approaches, as well as in acquiring and applying various research methods.

The main objective of the Master in Design is to qualify students for complex professional chal­lenges, whether at the interface of research/innovation, design practice/private enterprise, or education/com­muni­cations. Master students deepen and expand not only their specialist knowledge and skills, but also create particular career op­por­tunities for themselves. With these goals in mind, our pro­gramme focuses on the individual student and is project-driven.

Based on their experience and personal interests, ­students major in one of the six partially overlapping specialisations:

EREIGNIS

Events are becoming increasingly important within commercial and non-­commercial communication and dissemination strategies. Students majoring in “Ereignis” develop and stage happenings, media interactions as well as artistic interventions at the interface between different design disciplines and dimen­sions. Projects like “MMH or HMM” show the challenging potential of “Ereignis-Design” investigating food evolution and its production using such strate­gies as fakery, irritation, provo­cation, and three-dimensional story­telling. The result is a Future Food Gallery in Zurich.

COMMUNICATION

The world is not becoming more complex – rather, we are increa­singly becoming aware of its actual complexity. But how do we navigate a world that astounds us in its profusion of information and sensory experiences? This year’s graduates have tackled various aspects of this problem by exploring new ways of eluci­dating and transforming expert knowledge; of engaging people to help them express their personal experiences; of fostering debate, critique, and new forms of prac­tice; and of making accessible complex topics in order to support understanding and contemplation.

PRODUCT

Design occupies a leading role in the conception, development, and implementation of innovative products, services and systems. This year’s degree projects show a variety of creative solutions to existing and future necessities. Based on topics related to sports and tourism, the graduates pro­pose inventive and intelligent design solutions with the inten­tion of provoking discussion. Irrespective of whether a product concerns personal health, information systems for Arabic tourists in Switzerland or the potential of summer sledding, design can contribute much more than simple formal answers.

TRENDS

“Trace Trends and Shape the Future” is the core approach of the programme “Trends”. Students develop skills to create both strategic and innovative design concepts and scenarios. This year’s graduates present different views on significant cultural and socio-economic trends in the context of globali­sation and local heritage, authenticity and mass-individua­lisation, as well as sustainability and consumption culture. The visionary design concepts navigate between the futures of travelling, fashion thinking, high street strategic planning, and food waste solutions.